Thursday Roundup

News
WADA Conference call covered by AP via IHT, AFP via VeloNews, Reuters via the Grauniad. "The system is working.", says Pound, trying to sound concilliatory about Jones. When A and B are positive, "Just because you see a whole bunch of excuses put forward by an athlete or someone on his or her beh alf doesn't mean that a responsible anti-doping agency is just going to roll over and play dead." Pound notes that WADA can't do anything until USADA makes a decision, then it's UCIs turn to appeal. He dismisses lab complaints, claiming UCI has been very supportive of the lab. (Right up to the edge of the cliff, I'd guess.)

BikeBiz.Uk was on the call and has a unique read, including links to video and audio.
NYT reports that Dick is ready to appeal to CAS if USADA declines to hang Floyd.

Blogs
Some good, simple questions from blogger. May I add, "who died and left Dick in charge?"

One question raised is, "why does the UCI use the LNDD?" I bet there's a lot of people in the UCI asking the same question. One reason might be that the UCI doesn't run Le Tour, as much as they'd like it to be a ProTour event. There may be politics with the French Ministry of Sport, which helps fund LNDD. If the LNDD turns out to be the buffoon in this, as alleged, don't doubt the UCI will try to use it as leverage on ASO for ProTour-dom, and an argument for sending samples to Lausanne for testing. You know, the guys who wrote the protocol for IRMS testing. Just another level of politics in the case, you see.

Trust is the new Currency, Floyd reference, metaphorically related. It's part of the environment that says transparency is the right thing, because truth leaks eventually.

Forums
Daily Peloton carries a back and forth between Tom Fine, rational head, and one-mint-julich about Cortisone and C12/C13 ratios. Tom is arguing the cortisol might affect the result in odd, unanticipated ways, and getting push back from the others. Discussion does not seem conclusive.

[updated 19:25]